1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of splices and spliced ropes, and the method of splicing.
2. Description of Related Art
Rope has many uses today from materials handling and marine to aerospace to sports. Evidence of short handmade ropes dates back to prehistoric cultures. These early ropes were made by twisting natural fibers. However as the shipping and marine industry expanded, longer and stronger ropes were needed. Eventually, ropes came to be made from higher quality materials such as nylon and polyester. Today, some ropes are still twisted, but many are braided.
To make ropes more useable, many people add knots. However, knots cause the rope to lose much of its strength. This loss of strength is due to a more concentrated area of strain. A special kind of knot that allows the rope to retain more of its strength is the splice. Splices make a more permanent fastening than knots and spread the stress through a larger area than a knot. Yet, commonly used splices do not allow the rope to retain all of its original strength.
For example, a commonly used splice known as a buried eye splice is made by threading the free end of a rope back through the hollow core of the rope. As the rope is pushed through itself, an eye is formed. When this splice is under tension, the rope and splice act like a Chinese finger trap. This means that the rope acts like the finger trap and gets tighter under tension preventing the splice from being pulled out. The buried eye splice generally experiences some loss of strength and requires a hollow rope.
Braided loops are an ancient discovery and obviously follow the invention of the rope as a necessity for usefulness. The patent literature has a multitude of applications involving loops in ropes of various sorts. Splices which closest represent the structure presented here are included in this section.
Some slings have been made on the same principle of re-braiding the material; however these are distinct, in the fact that they do not reintroduce the braided material into the braid. They braid a section, leave a section unbraided and then re-combine by braiding. These braids could be weaker due to the increased stresses in such connections for the same amount of material.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,583,749, titled “Rope Assembly,” an eye splice is described. The splice is removable and able to be reattached; however, it is unlikely that the strength of the splice is equal to the strength of the rope.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,101, entitled “Double Hollow braided rope assembly and method,” uses a similar technique to form a loop or splice, except it requires multiple ropes braided over one another. Also, it is not demonstrated that the strength of said loops will be as strong as the strength of the rope.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,600,395 depicts another splice, but requires a needle to penetrate through the material. This penetration can potentially weaken the splice. The present invention is comprised of the same type of splice but without cutting or penetrating any material, and with up to 100% of the strength of the rope.
The braided loop described herein is a viable way to produce usable terminations in tethers and other rope configurations. Although, knots, loops and other rope or cord terminations are typically weaker than the rope itself, a braided loop that has approximately twice the amount of material should improve the holding properties of an inherently weak section. This configuration is the opposite of most “slings”, which in some cases have half the material for the rope and thus require half the material to produce the loop. So, the braided structure presented in this report should be lighter than its traditional sling counterpart, in addition stronger.